AirCanada misrepresenting fare class to *A partner programs?
Oct 5, 2018, 5:11 pm
#46
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: YYC
Posts: 23,797
The quoted answer from United, above, makes lots of sense.
Oct 5, 2018, 10:22 pm
#48
Join Date: Aug 2003
Location: Canada
Programs: Marriott Plat; Air Canada E75K; Westjet Platinum
Posts: 1,161
How did things get so complicated? The devil is in the details and this is a perfect example. And details are hard to come by. Imagine regular folks who can barely understand what a fare code is, never mind getting down to fare basis WFLA21TG or WFLA21FL. Thanks to this branded fare business, W is not a W is not a W. AC should just go back to have distinct and non-overlapping fare class for earning and non-earning tickets. Problem solved. Two months after branded fares were introduced, my corporate TAs (who does this for a living) don't even understand the importance and nuance of fare basis, they are still running off of the first letter of the fare code and telling me "don't worry, you will get your miles". Until there is a fix, AC should implement a feature, like AA, when booking a ticket online, you can enter your FFP during the booking process, and it will show exactly the mileage you will earn for the ticket. No more guessing of how the AC fare basis will get mapped to a different FFP.
Last edited by Sunny Day; Oct 5, 2018 at 10:30 pm
Oct 5, 2018, 10:50 pm
#49
Join Date: Jan 2010
Location: SFO
Programs: *G^2, Bonvoyed, NEXUS
Posts: 3,506
How did things get so complicated? The devil is in the details and this is a perfect example. And details are hard to come by. Imagine regular folks who can barely understand what a fare code is, never mind getting down to fare basis WFLA21TG or WFLA21FL. Thanks to this branded fare business, W is not a W is not a W. AC should just go back to have distinct and non-overlapping fare class for earning and non-earning tickets. Problem solved. Two months after branded fares were introduced, my corporate TAs (who does this for a living) don't even understand the importance and nuance of fare basis, they are still running off of the first letter of the fare code and telling me "don't worry, you will get your miles". Until there is a fix, AC should implement a feature, like AA, when booking a ticket online, you can enter your FFP during the booking process, and it will show exactly the mileage you will earn for the ticket. No more guessing of how the AC fare basis will get mapped to a different FFP.
As for your TA, if they don’t know what a fare basis is, then they are incompetent. That’s ticket pricing 101.
Oct 6, 2018, 4:59 am
#51
Join Date: Apr 2016
Location: YHZ/YQM
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 1,618
Oct 8, 2018, 12:20 am
#53
Join Date: Aug 2008
Location: YXY
Posts: 3,506
Oct 8, 2018, 12:44 am
#54
Join Date: Dec 2006
Location: YEG
Posts: 3,925
Oct 8, 2018, 7:27 am
#55
Join Date: Aug 2010
Posts: 3,130
Basic/light fares are not new in *A FFPs. However, to my knowledge, no other airline has ever had this issue. What they advertise is what they sell - even on HBO fares. That suggests that this is an AC issue, and while we can blame other *A FFPs till the cows come home, it begs the question: "why is this only happening with AC?"
That said, it falls on the more acceptable side of the AC's corner cutting corporate culture spectrum - certainly a lot less concerning than pilot fatigue and cabin cleanliness. I'm surprised they haven't taken away meals on intl flights yet. That'll save them even more.
Nov 5, 2018, 7:56 pm
#58
Original Poster
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: YYZ
Programs: Turkish M&S; Air Canada Aeroplan
Posts: 15
I too am interested to hear if anyone have any luck on this issue. So far Turkish has not been able to help (and AC refuse to deal with or even acknowledge the problem).
Nov 5, 2018, 8:29 pm
#59
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2003
Location: YYC
Posts: 23,797
I suspect this one will take a long time to get fixed...
Key point: one would imagine AC is not terribly interested in giving more miles for lower fares to other FFPs than the Aeroplan equivalent.
One would imagine (or at least hope) that they did inform the various partners. Who should then go on and publish the new rules.
But are these partners equipped to deal with these? If their system is strictly based upon the booking code, likely not. So are they going to introduce major changes just to cater to their half dozen members who fly AC once on a blue moon? Likewise, I don't see AC doing the work for them.
Bottom line, no one is particularly great need to care. Just find some workaround that 95% of the folks will take as is, and with the die hard complainers, playing the blame game is easy. Just make the thing into a zero miles bin.
Key point: one would imagine AC is not terribly interested in giving more miles for lower fares to other FFPs than the Aeroplan equivalent.
One would imagine (or at least hope) that they did inform the various partners. Who should then go on and publish the new rules.
But are these partners equipped to deal with these? If their system is strictly based upon the booking code, likely not. So are they going to introduce major changes just to cater to their half dozen members who fly AC once on a blue moon? Likewise, I don't see AC doing the work for them.
Bottom line, no one is particularly great need to care. Just find some workaround that 95% of the folks will take as is, and with the die hard complainers, playing the blame game is easy. Just make the thing into a zero miles bin.